Not that I don’t fix enough stuff at work, I decided it was time to fix some stuff at home. What a rough decision.

Entertainment

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Malala Yousafzai: “You Know, She Has a Nobel Peace Prize” – The episode was less funny but still very entertaining.

Voltron: Legendary Defender: Season 5 – I remember watching Voltron as a kid and this show definitely is not that but I like it. I just wish there were more to the seasons. The plot is good but it just feels like it is over too quickly.

Breaking Bad: Season 3 – I had started rewatching it in chunks a while back and I wanted to keep going. Still probably one of the best shows ever.

Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Season 2 – Unlike many others I didn’t care for the first season of this show. It took a few episodes of the second season but I think I’m into it now. However, it did make me realize that there might just be too much Marvel stuff being done.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit – It was one of those times I need to watch a movie that was more light-hearted than anything.

Games

Fortnite – I’m finding it hard to get into the PVE portion of this game. One thing that is turning me off is the menu system. It is so busy with so many things to do and that is only made worse by the fact that none of it makes sense. Maybe if I would sit down and go through it in depth it would make more sense but I just don’t feel the pull to do it.

News

Twitch Prime Free Games – Am I missing something or weren’t they already doing this? Is this just Amazon pumping it up? I have Amazon and Twitch Prime, it feels like I got Superhot some time ago from this.

Fornite hacks – Not in-game hacks but account hacks. From the reports I’ve read it sounds like EPIC is being pretty straight forward about giving refunds.

Fortnite mobile – I don’t see how this is going to work but I’m super curious to see them try.

Fortnite cross-platform play – I be Xbox would LOVE cross-platform play. I don’t think they need to Tweet about it. At this point it is not a technological problem but rather an entanglement of business agreements.

PUBG roadmap – The developer announced some of its future plans and given that the latest test server patch added emotes one can’t help but think they might be feeling the pinch from Fortnite.

PUBG 5 million players on Xbox One – So the game isn’t dead? Of course it isn’t. Personally I haven’t played it in weeks but that doesn’t mean plenty of others haven’t.(Note: They report 5 million players, not 5 million copies sold. “Fine Print”)

PUBG Mobile Goes West – …and North, by showing up on the Canadian Google Play Store. Still, shows that they are working on it an planning to expand the release.

Days Gone delayed – It was slated for a 2018 release but now is pushed back to 2019. Frankly, I still don’t know what this game is supposed to be about other than zombies. Maybe the delay will give them time to show the game’s identity.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider? – I’m in! I loved the first two Tomb Raider reboots, to the point I own them on both consoles(Tomb Raider on PS3 and XB1, then Rise of the Tomb Raider on XB1 and PS4). Curious to see if an exclusivity will be tied to this release.

Closing Arguments

I got the notion to start streaming or recording videos again. With that I started checking my setup and everything seemed fine. I did one short stream and when I watched the recording I noticed a bunch of background noise. This drug me into diagnosing the problem for what felt like hours on end. What I initially thought was a problem with the microphone turned out to be an issue with how I was capturing in-game audio. I had been using the Elgato Chatlink with no issue and for reasons unknown it developed white-noise in the recording. No matter what I recorded with the noise was there. Thinking it was a bad cable I ordered another on. Well, $10 wasted because that was not the problem. More investigation showed it was the line-in on my computer. Why it developed this problem I still don’t know. Even more investigation lead me to get a USB sound card but that was a struggle to find one with an actual line-in and not just mic inputs. After finding one with a line-in I then found that neither OSB or Elgato Game Capture would not take the audio from the USB sound card. Audacity can use the USB device. To fix OSB I now have to use Voicemeeter Banana as a mix amp.

When I go down these rabbit holes I get a little bit more respect for content creators. It seems like one little thing can through off every thing that you do. Even with the Internet as a resource, it can be a struggle just to keep this type of stuff together.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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Sometimes you just have to blame yourself for the way things happen, it’s one of those weeks.

Entertainment

Chris Rock: Tamborine – He’s a funny guy and it’s good to see him back.

Lethal Weapon – Still a classic.

Men in Black – It killed some time.

Inglourious Basterds, Burn After Reading, Tropic Thunder – In that order, on a Sunday.

Games

Fortnite – A couple of missions in the campaign but not much really.

The Divsion – Another Global Event/

News

Fortnite big on Twitch – It now is has the most viewers. That means more than League of Legends or PUBG. It really does have a strange art to it when you see the stuff people will build.

Diablo 3 I Coming to Switch, Diablo 3 Is NOT Coming to Switch, Diablo 3 IS coming to Switch – Quit teasing everyone. People would probably play a ton of this as I did on both the Xbox One and PS4.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 release date – October 12th is the day but this is another series that I dropped off of. The last Black Ops I played was the original. I don’t see myself getting this one.

The Division 2 confirmed – I’m legitimately happy about this one. Theoriginal game had a very rocky start and some controversy. Massive did a great job communicating and listening to the fans. It took a while but this game truly became something worth playing. Let’s hope they watched what Bungie did with Destiny 2 and learn what not to do with a sequel.

Closing Arguments

Not a good week but I can only blame myself. Maybe part of my penance is covering call for work this weekend. Enjoy your weekend.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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The time off was nice, while it lasted but nothing lasts forever. (Explicit lyrics ahead)

Entertainment

Atomic Blonde – King of disappointed by this. It wasn’t bad but I didn’t feel like there was really much to it either. I was more convoluted than anything.

Breaking Bad – Little tip for you, don’t stay up watching this show for 20+ hours. It’s still really good but it’ll leave you in a bad place with prolonged exposure.

Burn After Reading – Maybe Brat Pitt’s best performance.

Inglorious Basterds – A fun to watch movie but refer to my comment on the previous movie.

Goodfellas – Still a great movie. I had no reason to watch it other than as soon as I saw it on Netflix I instantly wanted to.

Games

Mass Effect: Andromeda – It was time for a break from this as I just felt a bit burned out. Probably get back to it some over the weekend.

Metal Gear Survive – (Explicit)……………….. Fuck this damn game! I played 2-3 hours of this and it was completely horrible. There was nothing redeeming about it to me and I want nothing more to do with it. The game felt fucked up and dumb but not in the endearing ways that Metal Gear is known for. Nobody ever should play this game. There are people that will enjoy this game but I and many others are not among them.

Fortnite – Since it was running for half-off I bought the Save The World Campaign. It seems alright but I didn’t get into much yet.

News

Horizon Zero Dawn a year after release – The game has sold over 7.6 million copies and has had tie-ins to with Monster Hunter World. Glad to see that the game did so well.

Yakuza 6 for free, kinda – Apparently the North American demo wasn’t just a demo and allowed players to play the full game. First guess is somebody has a log of explaining to do. But hey, free press is good press…right?

Detroit: Become Human release date – The date is May 25th but I’m not sure I care. Ever since the game was announced I’ve been trying to figure out what it is but every time they showcase the game it looks different. Based on not having a feel for the game I’m probably not going to buy it. This may be another rent before buying

ESRB microtransaction labels – This just feels like the ESRB looking at the government and going “Look, we did something. Huh? How ’bout it?” If there were less the ESRB could have done and gotten away with it I feel like they would have.

Trump to meet with video game industry – My only hope is that somebody can explain to him that his claims have been proven wrong and that there are plenty of other factors besides video games when it comes to behavior. Based on his track record, however, I expect he’ll walk away having learned nothing and still pointing the finger at video games.

Closing Arguments

After some time off I was feeling pretty good about things. Nice to know that just one day back at work will destroy what little soul you had left or regained.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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After working multiple weekends in a row, not only am I not working this weekend… I get a long weekend. Huzzah!!!

Entertainment

Altered Carbon – Stylistic. Chic. Weird. I would describe it as that point where Blade Runner meets Aeon Flux. The end of the season felt different from the start, especially in style. It seemed to transition through it and didn’t really hurt the show over all. Hope they do more of this.

Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen – Having never seen the original Ocean’s movie I have no reference for the movies but I did enjoy them. The first movie was great, the second movie was good, the third movie felt sort of lacking. The third movie felt like an obligation to make a movie rather than a movie.

Jerry Seinfeld: I’m Telling You for the Last Time – This old comedy special was still funny.

Games

Mass Effect: Andromeda – I decided to play my Insanity run on PS4 first. Yes, I said first. I still want to play an Insanity run on Xbox but based on my experience on PS4 so far I am not geared up well enough on Xbox. In two slots I have max weapons but the ones that aren’t seem to be a problem. Playing on Insanity takes a lot more planing than the regular play through and I have to temper myself into not just gun rushing a situation.

The Division – I hopped in for a few missions here and there. Stumble through the Dark Zone for a little bit.

News

Fortnite – Man this game is busy. Updates, Season 3, sales… EPIC is really putting all its eggs in this basket.

There’s other stuff going on but I haven’t been paying attention.

Closing Arguments

I’m taking a few days off of work. Not doing anything or going anywhere, just not working. After working four weekends in a row on top of my regular work week I just feel burned out. Haven’t kept up with much of anything and I hope some down time will let me recharge and get back in the flow of things.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day. I hope everyone enjoyed their Ash Wednesday. I really enjoyed going into work early and staying late. I know, I’m making you jealous.

Entertainment

Giant Bomb – The Exquisite Corps, Thirteen Deadly Sims, and The Bombcast are all top watches.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee – I finished all the episodes on Netflix. Seems like there should be more. Anybody know?

Games

Mass Effect: Andromeda – I finished the main campaign on Xbox. There is the want to keep leveling up and clear out side missions but I want to jump into an Insanity play-through. That only reminds me that I never finished my Insanity play-through on PS4. So now I feel the need to play both play-throughs. So confused.

The Division – I miss the Global Events, I have to admit it. Here’s hoping they do another one soon. Kind of doubt it based on the schedule of the last few. Some are expecting or hoping for an announcement of a sequel at E3 or other events this year. Unfortunately I doubt that as well as Ubisoft seems to be focused on other properties… bummer, hope I’m wrong.

News

People Like The Fortnite – The game hits 3.4 million concurrent users and can’t handle the load. Go figure? I’ll take a guess that the majority of users were in the Battle Royale mode, not Save The World mode… just guessing. Good to see that the game is doing well but I’m kind of worried how much EPIC is investing in it versus how little they are investing in other IP’s.

Another Metal Gear Survive beta – I’ll be on-call for work this weekend but I want to play this. There isn’t a reason why I want to play but I want to play. This game isn’t Metal Gear but what is Metal Gear?

Activision + micro-transactions = $$$ – Apparently the company made half of its money on micro-transactions. Not sure how to feel about that. With the way Battlefront II handled them versus other games… I can’t help but think I’m ok with cosmetic items but not game effecting upgrades.

Fortnite… No SMG’s for You! – In an attempt to better balance the game, EPIC has removed most of the SMG’s from the game. I’ll commend them, again, for improving the game. Too bad they can’t patch it so that I’m better and my lack of skill isn’t a problem(that’s a joke, I’m not good but I’m not salty about, please don’t take it seriously).

Closing Arguments

Only the Lonely was an old, great, Roy Orbison song. That should be the first thing one thinks of but I saw a Tweet stating that it is this week in 1996 when John Candy died. Well, it made me think of John Candy, thus the reference to one of his movies, but the Tweet is wrong from what I can find. From what the rest of the Internet tells me he died on 3/4/1994. Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet, I guess.

Beyond thinking of John Candy, and all his great movies, it reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend years after Candy’s death. Canadian Bacon was on the television and my friend said that if he were to invade Canada, John Candy would be his leader. This conversation happened sometime around 2000 and my first reaction was “You do realize he’s dead?”. To which my friend responded in surprise, “What?”. I then had to tell him that Candy was also Canadian. The next hours were spent explaining that Candy had been dead for years, he died filming Wagons East(if I remember correctly), and Canadian Bacon release posthumously. To this day I’m not sure my friend believes me.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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Sorry about not posting last week. It was a rough week and I just didn’t have the time or energy. I worked almost seventy hours, which exhausted me physically and mentally. Then to top it all of I got sick and it felt like somebody punched me in the ear. Got it looked at, likely just fluid not draining because of all the swelling in my sinuses.

Entertainment

Football – The good news is the Patriots lost. The bad news is the Eagles won.

Giant Bomb – The site is back in the swing of things with getting regular content posted. The Exquisite Corps is back and it reminds I bought XCOM but still have not finished it. If you don’t follow the series the quick explanation is that three staff from the New York office rotate command episode to episode. Maybe if I had Vinny Caravella helping me out too I wouldn’t be stuck. Last I played I was getting wrecked at the one alien base and just couldn’t find a way through it. Not sure if I want to try that again or if I should just start the game over. The thought is that I’ve learned a little bit about the game and maybe I could do things differently and be better off when I get back to this particular alien base.

Batman – Since I watched Batman and Batman Returns I felt compelled to watch Batman Forever as well as Batman and Robin. Guess what? There just as good as the day they released. They weren’t that good then and they aren’t that good now. Time has tempered my opinion as I can kind of just laugh at how gaudy they are and not get mad about it.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee – This is an entertaining series from and entertaining person. Yet again he has somehow found away to make a successful show that has no premise or plot. He just meets up with people, drives them in a car, and then has coffee with them. After a few episodes I was thinking “Well, he’ll never have Michael Richards on this show, even after all these years. His meltdown was too much”. No sooner than I completed that though the episode starring Richards came on. I had forgotten that Seinfeld publicly came out in support of his friend. Richards himself seemed legitimately contrite and remorseful about his actions. It was a very special and serious moment in an otherwise funny show. Definitely worth a watch. I plan to continue watching this series.

Games

Mass Effect: Andromeda – A couple hours here and there have gotten me near the end of the story. The hope is that I can finish it up this week.

The Division – When I’ve been too tired to play Andromeda this game has been the video game equivalent of comfort food. It’s still fun to play for the shorts bursts I play and I know the mechanics so well I can still play even when I’m tired.

News

Athem reportedly pushed to 2019 – This isn’t a big surprised but rather something that keeps the worry level up for this game. EA has pushed out a few duds lately, Andromeda and Battlefront II. Hopefully a delay is a good thing.

Xbox Game Pass gets day one access to Microsoft exclusives – This would be a bigger deal if Microsoft had more first party exclusives. Surely they have some in the pike but there are few to be seen at the moment to make this feel like more than a bolt on to the service.

PUBG anti-cheat measures – It is good that they are taking measures to stop cheating but there is that little part of me that wants to call bullshit. The step PUBG took to curb cheat was to not allow the file structure to be manipulated. That means that some of the cheats will make the game unplayable after installation. The dark side of my mind puts it together that this measure was taken just after it was let out that people are deleting the files for the newer map, all so they don’t have to play it. Is this really PUBG taking measures to make sure people play both maps? I hope not but there is always that change.

Dr. Disrepect racism – The guy takes time off after admitting to infidelity and immediately he starts a controversy by impersonating Asian people to mock them. If that wasn’t enough he tries to prove he’s not racist when called out on it by talking about how he knows many people of many nationalities. The problem is is that doesn’t prove anything. Just because you have friends of different cultural backgrounds doesn’t mean you do or don’t harbor racist feelings. There is an old adage that comes to mind – “Don’t listen to a man, watch him”. The meaning being that it doesn’t matter what a man says because he can control his words but his actions are more true of what his thoughts and feelings are. From what I see I don’t believe Dr. Disrespect but I don’t have to. I’ll continue my stance of not watching or supporting his content.

PUBG player count down – Don’t get to excited. It is probably partially caused by the rampant cheating. PUBG is working on and has banned tons of accounts, which is part of the dip in numbers, but there were a lot of people that just stopped playing because of the cheating. There will likely be a rise in numbers again.

Closing Arguments

Last week I wrote about fixing my Macbook. This week I fixed my toilet. After twelve years of use my lid decided it was done. As I have many times before, I put the seat down to sit while I trimmed a toenail and as soon as my weight was on the seat fully it broke. Damn near got a wet ass from it but the cracking and sudden drop scared me enough to jump straight back up. $13 later, I have a new toilet seat.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.

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In all honesty, I think the lack of sleep is really getting to me. It took almost an hour to balance my check book and I was constantly typing the wrong numbers in to the calculator. Good thing I’ve got another midnight shift this weekend at work to help me still not get any sleep.

Entertainment

Football – Uh, Patriots. I feel bad for the Jaguars and Keenum. Jaguars because it feels like they got Patriot’ed. You know those things that go the way of the Patriots but never go that way for any other team. Keenum had a great year but had his worst game against, an admittedly, good defense. Somehow I have to find a way to root for the Eagles.

The Men Who Stare At Goats – I love this movie. Perhaps George Clooney’s best work. It is just great entertainment, for me at least.

I haven’t been watching much else because the aforementioned lack of sleep has made it hard to concentrate on anything. The few things I’ve tried watching have been a waste of time just because I couldn’t force myself to follow them properly.

Games

Mass Effect: Andromeda – I’ve gotten a little further but not much. Hitting more side and loyalty missions than main story ones.

The Division – There is currently a Global Event where they have special modifiers and reward different gear. I’ve not played much, maybe two to three hours. The loot I’ve gotten has been fine. Little disappointed that I got three sets of the same kneepads. Wish they would spread it out so that you don’t get duplicates so easy.

Monster Hunter: World Beta – Having only played the first two quests all I can say is that it seems like a fine and well built game but it did not capture my interests. One of the things that turned me off was the fact that all the quests were timed. I understand that this is part of the game design but I didn’t like feeling rushed.

Metal Gear Survive Beta – It is a weird remix of Metal Gear assets, zombies, and survival games. It didn’t feel bad to play but it didn’t feel well explained, even for a beta. There was nearly no explanation that I could find for how menus or systems worked much less what you are supposed to be doing in the game.

News

Athem reportedly pushed to 2019 – This isn’t a big surprised but rather something that keeps the worry level up for this game. EA has pushed out a few duds lately, Andromeda and Battlefront II. Hopefully a delay is a good thing.

Xbox Game Pass gets day one access to Microsoft exclusives – This would be a bigger deal if Microsoft had more first party exclusives. Surely they have some in the pike but there are few to be seen at the moment to make this feel like more than a bolt on to the service.

Closing Arguments

Late last week I went to watch a video on my Macbook. I was startled by the buzzing that started coming from the left side. Turns out the speaker had somehow blown out. With that I looked at new Macbook prices and quickly stopped looking. Even though it is four years old, the cost of a replacement isn’t much of an upgrade. After some research I found the part number for a speaker kit and decided to take matters into my own hands. The kit cost about $70 and I already had to tools to open up the Macbook(about another $10). In less than twenty minutes I had the new speaker installed and working. Far better to have done the job myself rather than investing upwards of $1,300. Feels good to do something yourself and save a chunk of money doing it.

Paul Novak

Owner, Proprietor, Typer of Words, Gamer, Jester

A self described Polish ninja toiling away as an IT professional but more into gaming and writing. Physically existing on the western side of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet existentially flowing with the ether of the Internet.